Icelandic crews refuse to service Soviet planes

By
With Analysis from Monitor Correspondents around the world,
Edited by Ruth Walker /
January 29, 1980

Reykjavik, Iceland

Icelandic ground staff a Keflavik International Airport are refusing to service Soviet aircraft because of the Kremlin's military intervention in Afghanistan. Workers at the airport, which is also a US military base, declared the blanket ban Sunday after the Soviet Union sought landing permission for a heavy transport plane on its way to Cuba next week.

Meanwhile, in New York, Pan American World Airways has announced it will not handle flights of the Soviet airline Aeroflot into New York and Washington. The twice-weekly flights into Kennedy and Dulles airports will not be handled by Pan Am ground crews, and the Soviet airline would be denied the use of Pan Am facilities at both terminals.